Car dealerships today are facing two main challenges:
A market flooded with competition and rising costs of marketing and advertising.
Many dealerships rely on agencies that overpromise and underdeliver, frustrating them with expensive campaigns that don’t generate the right leads.
In this post, we’ll explore 12 proven marketing strategies for car dealerships.
Each strategy is rated and reviewed based on five key criteria:
- Results
- Cost
- Time to see results
- Effort
- Scalability
By the end of this post, you’ll clearly understand where to invest your dealership’s resources into marketing strategies that drive results—and generate the leads you need to grow your sales.
Why do car dealerships struggle with marketing?
According to recent reports, dealerships aren’t just facing pressure from competition or managing their sales teams—they’re also finding it difficult to generate high-quality leads consistently.
Think about it: thousands of new dealerships pop up every year, and the automotive industry continues to expand.
In 2021, the number of car dealerships in the U.S. was around 18,000, which continues to grow.
The automotive market is crowded, with more independent dealerships opening their doors and going head-to-head with more prominent, established brands.
While launching a dealership today requires minimal overhead—just a website, an inventory system, and a lead collection form—it’s also a double-edged sword.
Every new dealership can open its virtual doors as easily, making it challenging to stand out.
How do you capture attention in a sea of competitors all vying for the same web traffic?
Fortunately, we have the solution.
It doesn’t involve spending millions on flashy advertising campaigns. Smaller dealerships often feel overshadowed by the big players, who have massive budgets for TV commercials, billboards, and digital ads.
But where there’s a will, there’s a way.
With the strategies we’re about to reveal, you’ll see that you don’t need an oversized budget to win big in the lead generation game.
Most used marketing channels for car dealerships
Car dealerships looking to save money while reaching large audiences are turning to the Internet for results. Smart move.
A recent survey shows the top marketing channels for dealerships are:
It’s a nice mix of tactics, but you won’t see the results you’re hoping for without a well-planned strategy.
By executing a holistic digital marketing campaign, you can outsmart your top competitors without overspending them.
So, if you have a limited budget, focus on the marketing channels that deliver the highest return on investment.
But which channels should you prioritize for your dealership?
Hint: Not billboards or radio ads.
At least, not right away. It’s not that traditional media doesn’t work, but it’s not the best starting point for most dealerships with limited resources.
Look at brands like Airbnb—they started with digital marketing, building a strong online presence before moving into TV and radio spots.
Once they achieved brand recognition, they could afford to focus on memorable marketing messages to win over their audience.
This model works just as well in today’s digital age.
Car dealerships need to adopt a digital-first mindset before exploring traditional advertising methods.
We tested multiple car dealership marketing strategies; here’s what we found…
When implemented correctly, digital marketing can be a cost-effective, high-conversion strategy.
Without a clear plan, though, it can become expensive and fail to deliver results.
Some dealerships may dismiss tools like pay-per-click (PPC) ads or social media marketing because they didn’t see the expected return.
But the problem is not the channels themselves—how and when you use them.
Think of it like a puzzle—you need to fit the pieces together correctly to achieve the “big picture” goal of generating more leads and sales for your dealership.
TV, Radio, Billboards, and OOH Ads for Car Dealerships
Turn on the television. Tune in to the radio. Drive down any busy highway. Chances are, you’ll see or hear car dealerships advertised everywhere.
Television and out-of-home (OOH) ads are the traditional forms of marketing for dealerships.
But are they the most effective? And more importantly, do they give you the best return on your investment?
Using these channels might make sense if you’re a large dealership with a significant budget and strong brand recognition.
You already have the trust of your community, and these ads help keep you top of your mind. But if you’re a small or mid-sized dealership without those advantages, these methods can be too expensive and may not deliver a solid return.
These channels focus more on building brand awareness than directly generating leads. People don’t suddenly decide to buy a car just because they see or hear an ad.
Car buyers do their research when they’re actively in the market, and that’s where digital channels can give you a better return.
For smaller dealerships, it’s much more effective to invest in lead generation strategies that target potential buyers actively searching for vehicles online and looking for options.
Organic social media marketing for car dealerships
Using social media to drive organic traffic to your car dealership can work, but it’s a slow burn if you don’t already have a large following or the time to build one.
Think of this channel as a relationship builder—it won’t necessarily generate a flood of fresh leads.
Still, it can keep your dealership in mind when someone’s ready to purchase or needs a recommendation.
Having updated, active social media profiles is also essential if a prospect decides to check you out.
It’s an opportunity to build your credibility, especially if you have positive reviews or testimonials from past customers.
Most dealerships don’t have the time to dedicate to organic social media growth, and hiring an agency can be costly.
Unless you’ve built a solid following, you likely won’t see much of a return on investment (ROI) from this channel.
The takeaway? Organic social media helps maintain relationships and brand presence but shouldn’t be your main lead-generation strategy.
Instead, focus on platforms where buyers are actively searching, like Google and Facebook Ads.
Email marketing for car dealerships
Email marketing is a powerful tool for car dealerships because it increases the chances of your prospects seeing and clicking on your offers.
However, this strategy only works if you’ve built a sizeable list of subscribers.
You can’t expect a steady flow of leads if you’re working with a small list of a few dozen contacts.
Email marketing requires time—you need to grow your list through other marketing efforts, such as blogging, social media, and PPC advertising.
So, don’t dismiss email—it should definitely be part of your long-term strategy.
First, focus on building your subscriber base, and then leverage email marketing to send promotions, new inventory updates, and special offers to your growing audience.
Once you’ve built a solid list, you’ll need to decide whether to handle the planning and execution of email campaigns or hire an agency.
Pro tip: Personalize your email content with specific offers, seasonal promotions, or even helpful car maintenance tips to keep your audience engaged and more likely to take action.
Public Relations for car dealerships
Being featured in an article or writing a guest post for a popular automotive website is an excellent way to gain attention—especially if it goes viral.
But attention doesn’t always mean leads.
PR isn’t a strategy dealerships should rely on to generate immediate car sales. It’s more about building visibility and credibility for your brand.
Sure, people might read your article and remember your dealership when they’re ready to buy, but it won’t immediately trigger a flood of calls.
Then there’s the effort required to get content published on well-known platforms.
That’s why larger dealerships often hire PR agencies—an option that can be too expensive for smaller businesses. However, it’s something to consider once you’ve established steady organic traffic to your website.
Here’s the kicker: PR works best with organic search marketing. You can use the attention from a PR piece to drive traffic to your blog posts or inventory pages, boosting your visibility in Google and potentially increasing your sales.
When you’re ready to invest in PR, we recommend working with a professional agency—expect to pay around $1,000 per month for effective results.
Sponsor local organizations and cross-promote with other businesses
Keeping your dealership visible within the local community is crucial for lead generation. One of the most effective ways to do this is by sponsoring local sports teams, whether professional, college, high school, or amateur leagues.
You can also sponsor community events such as charity runs, festivals, and other local activities.
Another powerful strategy is cross-promoting with other local businesses.
For example, you could partner with a popular restaurant and offer a gift card to customers who take a test drive. The restaurant can promote this offer, driving its patrons directly to your dealership.
Building local relationships like these not only increases your visibility but also fosters trust within the community, helping you generate leads that convert into sales.
Create a referral program
Referrals are one of the most cost-effective ways to generate high-quality leads for your dealership. To make the most of this, develop a strong referral program.
Ensure your customers are satisfied with their experience, and offer them compelling incentives to refer your dealership to friends, family, and colleagues.
For example, you could offer a cash reward, a free car service, or a discount on their next purchase for each successful referral.
The key is to make it easy for them to share their positive experience and feel motivated.
Word-of-mouth marketing is powerful, especially in the automotive industry, where trust plays a significant role in decision-making.
Leveraging your satisfied customers will generate more leads without a large marketing budget.
Paid social media advertising for car dealerships
Running paid ads on social media is faster than organic social media for driving traffic to your website.
You create an ad, bid on keywords relevant to your dealership (like “buy a car near me” or “best car deals”), and watch the traffic start flowing.
Every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay the price you bid for that keyword.
If no one clicks, you pay nothing.
Great deal, right? But only if those clicks turn into actual leads. Unfortunately, very few people head to social media to buy a car.
So, focusing your efforts solely on social ads when you need immediate leads may not be the best strategy.
However, once you’ve built a solid customer base and want to increase your dealership’s visibility, paid social ads can be helpful.
Remember, though—this is more of a long-term strategy for lead generation.
The more people see your ads, the more likely they will remember your dealership when buying.
Pro tip: Use social ads to retarget previous visitors to your website or people who’ve shown interest in your inventory but haven’t yet converted.
Content marketing for car dealerships
When someone is ready to buy a car, what’s the first thing they do? Chances are, they head to Google or another search engine and type in something like “best car deals near me” or “top SUVs of 2024.”
Whatever shows up at the top of the search results gets their clicks—and potentially their business.
You need a solid strategy incorporating search engine marketing techniques to land at the top. One of the most effective is content marketing.
By targeting the right keywords and creating high-quality, informative content your audience is searching for, you’ll rise faster in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
However, producing great content takes time and effort.
Without a dedicated team of writers and strategists, you’ll spend a lot of time learning and crafting the content needed to drive leads and sales.
Pro tip: Start with blog posts and guides that answer common car-buying questions, like “How to choose the right car” or “Top financing tips for first-time buyers.”
This will help you rank higher and build trust with potential customers.
SEO for car dealerships
If your dealership is already using content marketing and paid ads, integrating local SEO can give you a major boost in search results.
Here’s how it works:
- Local service ads appear at the very top, above the #1 organic search result.
- PPC ads are shown just beneath.
- Your top-ranking content appears under the paid search results.
- And then, you’re featured in the local pack—the three business listings next to the Google map.
In other words, you dominate the search engine results page (SERP), drastically increasing your chances of getting clicks from potential car buyers.
But local SEO goes beyond just content marketing.
While publishing fresh blog posts helps drive organic traffic, you need to implement additional strategies to really excel.
Here are some proven local SEO tactics for dealerships:
- Backlink is building through guest posts to drive traffic.
- Optimizing web pages, like service and inventory pages (not just blog posts).
- Conducting technical SEO audits to ensure Google can crawl and rank your pages.
- Optimizing landing pages to improve conversions (Conversion Rate Optimization or CRO).
- Adding FAQs to pages to target the People Also Ask section in SERPs.
- Ensuring mobile optimization so your site is responsive on any visitor’s device.
This list gives you an idea of the various tasks and the time investment required. It’s not something you can knock out over a weekend—it’s a full-time job.
Local SEO is highly competitive, and doing it in-house can be challenging.
Your best bet is to hire an SEO agency specializing in automotive marketing.
Not implementing traditional SEO strategies risks falling behind competitors who are already using them.
The best marketing channel for car dealerships: Focus on search engines first, then the rest
Trying to compete with the big dealerships right out of the gate isn’t the smartest move if you lack the same resources.
Smaller dealerships should leverage savvier strategies to gain visibility without the high costs of billboards or TV ads.
With search engine marketing—content marketing, paid search, and traditional SEO—you can generate quality, ready-to-buy leads directly from the internet.
Don’t get me wrong—TV, OOH, PR and social media are all valid push marketing channels and have their place in dealership marketing.
These are what you use to build brand recognition and visibility. But they rely on pushing your ads in front of people and hoping they connect with your dealership.
Search engine marketing, on the other hand, is a pull marketing tactic.
Instead of forcing your message in front of people, you’re allowing the natural flow of traffic (potential buyers) to come to you—thanks to your optimized content and digital assets that attract them to your site.
Think of it like this: pulling a car downhill using gravity is easier than pushing it uphill.
Which do you think gets better results?
Pull marketing wins every time.
Suppose you’re a car dealership looking to build a marketing strategy that delivers qualified leads without wasting your time or money.
In that case, it’s time to prioritize search engine tactics and see the difference they can make.